Visit to Portland

After 6 years with Alex living in Portland, we finally went to Portland to visit him and his girlfriend, Kristen.
The trip down from Issaqua was wet. It rained most of the way down with periods of heavy rain that reminded me of the rains in Texas. It rained so hard in places that we had to slow down and I almost pulled off of the freeway.
The weather improved while we were there and turned off very nicely.
We arrived about 1:30pm on Monday and we went for a long walk. Alex lives near downtown Portland. We walked to a sandwich shop, and had a sandwich as we were hungry.
The Bunk Sandwich Shop has been featured on Food Network's Diners, Dives & Drive-ins.
The sandwiches were good although pricey.

We went to Kristen's house where we stayed. She was so nice to give up her bed for us.
We then went to a city park and walked around for a while enjoying the plants and trees.

The park is situated in a very nice neighborhood with expensive and somewhat unique homes.

This is a tree in the park.
That night we met Tony, Mag & the girls for dinner at a Chinese restaurant in downtown Portland. It is Szechuan style and served family style. It was good, but some dishes were extremely spicy, so Brenda had to pass on some of the choices.
It was nice to see Tony and family again.


PuiKay interviewed Brenda and me for a school project. She needed someone who was alive in 1954. We both fit that profile, but I remember more than Brenda as she was only 2 years old then.
The girls are still being home schooled, except for PuiKay. She is a sophomore in high school this year.

Tuesday, the weather cleared up and we decided to go on a wine tasting tour in Willamette Valley.
Kristen, who is Alex's girlfriend, is in the wine business, so we got our tastings free and a discount on all of the wine we bought.
We went to 4 different wineries, all but one she has done business with over the years.
We especially liked Argyle Winery.
They had a flower garden in front that was blooming and spectacular.
There were multiple varieties of flowers and grasses that I have seen and enjoyed, but the names either I never knew or had forgotten.
All of the wines were excellent in all 4 wineries. But none in the price range that I usually buy. so tasting great wines was a treat.
The main grape grown in this region is Pinot Noir. It is very difficult to grow and impossible to manipulate. That is why it is such an expensive wine.
We went home and Kristen fixed a delicious pasta meal. Of course, we had wine and an exceptional evening.

Becky is still hanging in there. She is feeling fine. Both she and Fred are ready for this pregnancy to end. They are looking forward to greeting Grace into this world.

We move to Wallace Falls next Friday. This surely has been a quick 2 months.
We have enjoyed our time here and may return next year.

Ta ta for now.

The rains have returned

The grass around our rig has greened up and grown over the past week. The rains of the fall here in the Great Northwest have returned.
It drizzles almost every morning and most days it clears up to partly cloudy.

I did cut the grass around the rig and it looks much better. We have 3 apple trees in front of the rig and we pick up apples off of the ground every day.
The crows eat at the apples and knock several down a day.
There are several hundred Canada Geese here in the park, so we keep the apples picked up so that the geese don't find them. They are some of the dirtiest birds. They pop everywhere and leave a big mess. I hear complaints from the morning walkers often about the goose poop.

Heather has been complaining about right shoulder pain for about a month and it finally manifested itself in the right side of her abdomen. It was worse every time she ate, so we became suspicious of possible gall bladder problems.
She went to the doctor on Friday week ago, and was diagnosed as probable gall bladder problems.
She had hers taken out on Friday laporoscopically, and appears to be making a good recovery. She still has some pain, but is taking less medicine daily now.

Greg and Dawn came down from Canada Saturday evening and spent almost all day yesterday with us. It was a nice time and we enjoyed seeing them again.
They plan to return at least one more time before we leave. Maybe after Grece is born.

Becky is doing well with her pregnancy. She starts her weekly doctors visits on Thursday. She is ready for Grace to make her appearance and end this uncomfortable ordeal.

Last week we drove up to Wallace Falls State Park just to look around. It is our next destination and last park before heading south.
The ranger wasn't there so we didn't get to meet him and his wife. We have been corresponding with the rangers wife.
It is a small park, so there is only one ranger, tent camping only, with 1 or 2 Yurts and cabins.
There appears to be a lot of hiking trails and of course the falls. We will get to see the rest of the park when we arrive for our assignment.

Fred came over on Saturday to change the shocks on the coach. It turned out to be a much larger job than either one of us had anticipated.
It took over an hour to get the right front one off and the new one on. Fred thinks that salt and road grime was the culprit, as the left one was much easier.
I'm glad that Fred was here, as I could not have gotten those bolts that hold the shocks on, out on my own.
When they were loose we knew why the ride was so bad. Those shocks were shot.
Fred ran out of time so only the 2 front shocks were replaced.
We will do the rear, hopefully, before we leave Lake Sammamish.
Fred did all of the work and I was his helper.

Ta ta for now.